Consensual Enslavement
The Bright And Shiny Line
We talk about lines which should not be crossed. This quote comes from a story that almost no one has read, yet.
He took hold of the loop on her hood and pulled her head up and turned it as if she could see him. “What we have to remember. The line we have to keep bright and shiny. The cliff we must not go over, is that we do this only for and to those who want to be a slave. Those who want to submit and serve. Those who put themselves willingly into our hands, our chains, our collars. We do this for them, not for ourselves. This is one of the secrets of the trainer of slaves who does not abuse those who submit to them. For many, we must be the ever knowing, god like Master who is so far ahead of them there is nothing they can do but obey. For others the firm authority in their lives to keep them on the correct path and safe from harm. But always, there must be the line we do not cross and they must always see that. We control ourselves before we control them. We do not control out of love, even if they come to love us. We do not control out of fear, even if they fear us. We control through their willingness to serve and please us. This is what sets us apart from those who do this through hatred, from fear, the desire to cause pain, or the feeling of being out of control and getting back at those who they feel are in control.” He paused in thought at that point and she waited for him. “We may feel some of those things and yes, they may be some of why we do this at first.” His voice grew stern and cold, “But if you want to do this as I do this, you will grow past those things and bury them even if they are still some part of you.”
She could hear his voice breaking a bit as he continued. “I have heard that some of the royalty in the SCA use the phrase, ‘We rule because they believe.’ We must bring those we train to believe in us and always be worthy of their belief. A major part of that belief is their trust in our control of ourselves. Another secret is that we do this for them as much or more than we do it for ourselves. If we want to stay on the right side of those lines and not go over into abuse or give in to the desire for only our own pleasures we must control ourselves first. We have the ability to harm someone just because we can. We both know there are many people who do that. Some are more and some less that way. I won’t say we can’t ever give in to some of that. Sometimes to maintain our control we have to let some of those pressures be released.
This is the musing of someone who has been training and owning slaves for years. He is speaking to a slave who has been a slave for only a couple of hours but who also has a few years of experience owning and training consensual slaves. She is wearing a blind hood and cannot see but can hear and speak.
We speak and write a lot about self-control and why we do what we do. We go on at length about how it is the slave’s purpose to serve the Master and not the Master’s purpose to serve the slave. This quote is saying almost the opposite. He sees a bright line that must not be crossed. Why does he say this to his new slave? Because he can and he has someone to whom he can release the pressure of his knowledge and beliefs. As a trainer we teach and what we teach may not be what those we teach always expect to hear.
Those of us who own and train do this for our own reasons. Sometimes they are good and noble ones and sometimes they are the opposite. It can be done out of fear, hate, revenge or feeling the loss of control in their lives. It can be done for many other reasons. In most cases the people who feel those things turn into the mental and physical abusers who harm mostly their spouses and families. They are on the other side of the bright line. What makes us different if we feel some of those things? As he says, because we do this not because we can, not to help or control ourselves, but because we do it for those who want and need what we wish to do, enslave and own them. A slave cannot truly be a slave without a Master to serve and to put his controls on her. They must believe in us and what we can do for this to work. Without that belief it almost always collapses.
We can harm those who serve us so very easily. As he said, sometimes we hurt them because we can. I am not speaking of kinky play or even punishments but of damage both physical and mental. Consensual enslavement gives those who wish or need that control the control they seek and their service a focus on whom to serve. We are two sides of one thing in that respect. Each needs the other and needs to be needed.
“We rule because they believe.” It is the slave’s belief in us that allows us to do some amazing things with those we train and own. They believe we can do something and it happens, especially when we believe it too. We work together to make it happen even if we don’t realize it at the time. This is the knowledge that sets those who know and understand it on a level above others. It is a tool we use, knowingly or not, and it amplifies everything else we do.
The other point I wish to stress from that quote is that knowing why we want to do something is important to our self-control. It is also important to not be so self-controlled that we break. This is why the Master says that sometimes a little of the pressure must be released. You approach that bright and shiny line and do your best to not actually cross it or if/when it happens you can pull back. The pressure release gives the room to flex and bend when needed and not be absolutely rigid in all we do and believe. It gives us room to learn and grow without a rigid shell which confines us.
That bright line is also the point where what we do can pass from the legal, barely legal to illegal. Yes, much of what we do can questionable under the laws of most places. The terms and culture of consensual slavery often says one thing to many others even if we mean it in a different way. Crossing the that line is something any of us can do. There are some who enjoy, who revel in doing so. Those are the ones who produce the horror stories we hear and the damaged people we meet. Or, as a person said to me once, the broken toys we try to fix. Some fail out of ignorance. Some fail out of hubris. Some destroy others because they can. Ignorance can be fixed. The more you learn the better you can teach and be a model for others to follow. Pride can be swallowed and overcome. Usually that only happens after something very bad has occurred. Sometimes it can be changed from a false pride to a real one with knowledge and experience. The ones who destroy because they can may not be able to be helped. All we can do is do our best to educate them on how this can be done in ways that do not harm and identify those who hurt others out of choice and help others to identify them as well to prevent more damage.
Each one of us chooses where our bright and shiny line is. It may shift over time and with knowledge and experience. Ask yourself if you know and can explain for others where your bright line lies and what does and does not cross it. In another place in the story, the slave questions the Master if he has crossed that line with something he did to her. Whether or not he did cross it is a question discussed in the story. I bring it up because the Master may feel he did not cross his line and can give the reasons why and the slave may feel that he crossed the line she would not have crossed if she was in his place. Yes, slaves can have that bright line too. It is there for everyone. How it happens in the story I will leave for you to read and decide if he or she was correct. This dual line situation is something we all must consider when we approach our bright line. It is part of the fuzzy boundary area we all see at times and wonder how close we can come and not go over the line. As I said above, sometimes we make mistakes. Sometimes whatever it was we crossed over for doesn’t work. What we do then is just as important as our initial self-control and the lines we set for ourselves and those in our care and control. It shows who and what we are and what we want to be.
The quote is from a book on how to understand and do consensual enslavement entitled “I Can Do This” by Malkinius. The quote is from the fourth chapter of the fictional consensual slavery example. The Master is talking to his new slave before they go to sleep for the night about why they do this.